Vendor lock-in a user concern for those heading to the cloud

Users are concerned that as they move deeper into a hybrid and multi cloud world they will get trapped working with just a handful of vendors.

Vendor lock-in has been a recurring concern with anecdotal tales of it being easy to ramp up services in the public cloud but extremely difficult getting a clean exit.

Fujitsu research has added some more fuel to the fire with its Where is Hybrid Heading? Views on exploiting multi-modal IT report, revealing that fears of being locked-in were felt by 80% of respondents.

That means that resellers will need to demonstrate that they can provide customers with flexibility with the vast majority of users looking for assurances they will be able to adapt their hybrid cloud strategy.

Agility is not only needed by those fearful of a vendor lock-in but also an essential requirement for those looking to speed up their business processes to enable greater digital transformation.

That also has some consequences for the channel with 63% of hybrid IT users stating that the desire to look for 'faster delivery and more reliable business outcomes' as the reason to partner with a service provider.

The Fujitsu report found that from a user perspective integration and orchestration were the main barriers with close to half of users revealing they are struggling with those issues.

“Now that cloud has become mainstream, it’s no longer a land grab and organisations have become a lot more selective when it comes to deploying cloud services. On the one hand they are alert to a new risk of vendor lock-in and have come up with viable strategies to off-set this," Mark Phillips, head of digital pursuits, Fujitsu EMEIA.

"On the other hand, they are convinced that cloud really does give them the ability to respond to the pressures of disruption and see partnering with leading global systems integrators like Fujitsu as the best way to speed up and de-risk cloud adoption and management. This is particularly the case with integration and orchestration, which they see as the biggest hurdle to jump," he added.